Going beyond on pitch success: fan engagement as a catalyst for growth

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1 ISSN: 1756-8811

Birkbeck Sport Business Centre

Research Paper Series

Going beyond on-pitch success:

Fan engagement as a catalyst for growth

Nicole Allison

Birkbeck, University of London

Volume 6, Number 2, December 2013

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2 Abstract

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1. Introduction

‘There is tremendous power there to engage with customers but quite what the optimum solution is at the moment remains unclear. As sport marketers we really have to get to grips with realising the potential of social media’.

(Peter Willems, In Chadwick, 2012:164)

Today’s world of instant communication provides football clubs with ample opportunity to engage with their fan base. The development of social media has positioned conversation at the heart of communications, allowing successful social strategies to deliver greater loyalty, affiliation and, as a result, increased revenues. Whilst the subject of social media is growing in academic journals, there is very little understanding of how sport organisations are using this platform. Combined with the author’s interest, this was the primary reason for undertaking this research.

A strategy that offers sustainable growth for a sport like football, which has been mired with financial instability and supporter discontent, is gaining weight. Bankruptcies and liquidations have swarmed British football for the past decade, offering a compelling reason to seek a more customer-centric approach; a sustainable alternative to the way clubs have been run. Sloane (1971) described the nature of the owners of football clubs, specifically in Europe, as utility maximisers where utility is largely related to success on the pitch, as opposed to profit maximisers. With the incoming financial controls being implemented across the English football leagues in addition to UEFA’s Financial Fair Play legislation, the significance of developing long-term profitability has never been more evident.

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The focus of this research is centred on the following research questions: 1: Are clubs using fan engagement as a catalyst for growth?

2: Are clubs successfully using social media to engage with fans and increase loyalty?

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2. Literature Review

2.1 Relationship Marketing to Customer Relationship Management and

Customer Loyalty

The purpose of business, according to Drucker (1954), is to create and keep customers. He advocated that organisations should have a guiding philosophy that puts the customer as the focal point of the entire company. Successful firms work to build long-term relationships with their customers through the concept of relationship marketing (RM) (Zikmund et al, 2003). RM goes back to the basics of determining what customers need and want as well as concentrating on the development of ongoing relationships with these customers, as opposed to traditional (or transactional) marketing which focuses on the seller achieving their objectives. RM communicates the idea that the key objective of the company is to engage with customers over the long-term (Zikmund et al, 2003), placing commitment to customers higher than maximising short-term profits (Groenroos, 1994). For Zikmund et al (2003), selling a product should not be considered as the end of the marketing process, but rather as the start of a relationship with that customer. According to Groenroos (1994), RM is not just a strategy for business; rather it is a philosophy that is held by all within the company. However, the implementation of RM is often unsuccessful because the firm often sees RM as a strategic concept to be tested instead of a comprehensive set of beliefs that shape the mission, vision and direction of the company (Adamson et al, 2005).

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is the very essence of the business. As Mangold and Faulds (2009:357) explain, integrated marketing communications (IMC) is the ‘guiding principle organisations follow to communicate with their target markets’ using the various elements of the promotional mix to produce a unified customer-focused message. Jobber and Fahy’s (2012) third condition states that management must believe the vision and mission of the business can be achieved through satisfied customers. By adopting an outside-in focus, or market orientation, companies can understand what customers value and how to consistently innovate new sources of value that keep them coming back. Benefits to organisations which develop and maintain strong customer relationships include increased purchases, lifetime value gained from the loyal customer and the generation of additional business due to the importance of word-of-mouth promotion (Jobber and Fahy, 2012).

Raab et al (2008) explains that a comprehensive framework involving CRM is an essential requirement for businesses in today’s global economic landscape in order to succeed. Knowing your customer and knowing what you represent as an organisation are essential requirements to succeed in today’s business world (Raab et al, 2008). For Zikmund et al (2003) CRM is a business strategy that provides a comprehensive, reliable and integrated view of an organisation’s customer base via information technology systems.

Increased competition in all business sectors, higher customer standards and replaceable products has resulted in the rise and appeal of CRM for successful, modern companies. Customer expectations are increasingly becoming the centre of attention for organisations and consequently CRM is frequently top of companies’ agendas (Raab et al, 2008).

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occurs when an organisation has a deeper understanding of its customers’ needs and shows a ‘willingness to meet those needs on an ongoing basis’. Furthermore, the link between customer loyalty and profitability is essential in marketing. The associations that have been identified between a small increase in customer retention and a large increase in profitability have been explained by the ‘propensity of loyal customers to spend more with the organisation and the decreased cost of serving such customers’ (Jobber and Fahy, 2012:185). That said, other research concludes that this relationship is more complex as in some instances, long-standing customers are only marginally profitable while some short-term customers have been highly profitable (Witzel, 2005). This serves to reaffirm the significance of loyalty compared to the length of time customers have been with a company.

Adamson et al (2005) explain that there is a high rate of failure within conventional business attempts at implementing CRM, with a key problem being that companies are installing CRM applications software without knowing what the aims are. The confusion surrounding CRM implementation stems from the transaction-relationship marketing argument. In other words, are organisations principally concerned with using CRM tools for improved targeting, creating propositions and direct selling? Or, do they want to generate a genuine two way dialogue, make and keep long-term commitments and nurture trust? (Adamson et al, 2005)

2.2 Social Media

The concept of social media is not groundbreaking, yet there seems to be confusion amongst managers and academics about what exactly should be included under this term (Kaplan and Haelein, 2010). Kaplan and Haelein (2010:61) define social media as ‘a group of internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content’. They argue that the current trend towards social media is developing back to the internet’s roots since it transforms the World Wide Web into what it was originally created for; ‘a platform to facilitate information exchange between users’ (Kaplan and Haelein, 2010:60).

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become a powerful tool for marketers, entrepreneurs, advertisers, and public relations professionals. According to Drury (2008) marketing with traditional media was about delivering a message, whereas marketing with social media is a two-way process building a relationship and conversation with the audience.

Mangold and Faulds (2009) highlight that tools and strategies for communicating with customers have changed significantly with the emergence of social media. Content that is transmitted through various social media platforms has become a ‘major factor in influencing various aspects of consumer behaviour’ (Mangold and Faulds, 2009:358), such as awareness, opinions, purchase behaviour and post-purchase evaluation. However, they assert that many business managers ‘lack a full appreciation for social media’s role in the company’s promotional efforts’ (Mangold and Faulds, 2009:358), and that methods for shaping consumer-consumer conversations have not yet been fully developed. Social media has two key interrelated roles which should be implemented in successful integrated IMC strategies of any organisation. Firstly, social media enables organisations to talk to their customers, which is consistent with the use of traditional IMC tools such as advertising and PR efforts, via online platforms such as social networks (e.g. Facebook), microblogging (e.g. Twitter), blogs, message board, forums, video sharing (e.g. YouTube) and many more. The second role of social media is the unique way in which customers communicate with one another. Whilst it can be seen as an extension of traditional word-of-mouth communication, the sheer magnitude of communication that social media provides makes it a unique form of IMC (Mangold and Faulds, 2009). Consumers now have the ability to communicate with hundreds or thousands of other consumers quickly and effortlessly.

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with the organisation’s mission and goals, which has long been a crucial element of successful IMC strategies.

Mangold and Faulds, (2009) consider social media as a hybrid element of the promotion mix because it enables companies to talk to their customers as seen in traditional media, whilst also allowing customers to talk directly to one another. They describe a ‘new communications paradigm’ which incorporates social media into the traditional promotion mix of advertising, PR, direct marketing and sales promotion, and affirm that marketers need to recognise the ‘power and critical nature of the discussions being carried on by consumers using social media’ (Mangold and Faulds, 2009:360). The more an organisation engages with the consumer the more likely it is that the consumer will want to communicate through both social media and word-of-mouth, which helps to build brand awareness, loyalty and equity.

Foux (2006, In Mangold and Faulds, 2009:360) argues that social media is perceived by consumers as a ‘more trustworthy source of information regarding products and services than corporate-sponsored communications transmitted via the traditional elements of the promotion mix’. Therefore, social media can play an important role in strengthening brand awareness and loyalty if organisations can successfully shape these consumer-to-consumer conversations and adapt to this new communications paradigm. If companies do want to generate a genuine two way dialogue, build long-term relationships with their customers and nurture their trust, implementing an engaging social media strategy is an important step.

2.3 The Football Industry: The Business Case for Fan Engagement

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11 Figure 1: Top ten Premier League clubs based on lost revenue as a result of empty seats

Club

Seats Used

Stadium Capacity

Average

Premier League home crowd

Empty Seats

Mean ticket price*

Pie, programme and tea

Missed revenue per match

Missed revenue per season

Aston Villa 80.1% 42,551 34,084 8,467 £35.00 £8.30 £366.621 £6,965,800

Sunderland 81.9% 49,000 40,171 8,829 £31.00 £8.00 £344,331 £6,542,289

Wigan 74.4% 25,138 18,659 6,479 £27.00 £7.10 £220,933 £4,197,744

Everton 91.2% 40,394 36,874 3,520 £38.50 £7.90 £163,328 £3,103,323

Newcastle 94.7% 52,387 49,657 2,730 £36.00 £8.00 £120,120 £2,282,280

Southampton 92.7% 32,689 30,496 2,193 £39.50 £8.20 £104,606 £1,987,515

WBA 89.7% 28,003 25,080 2,923 £25.00 £8.10 £96,971 £1,838,273

QPR 93.2% 19,148 17,851 1,297 £47.50 £8.00 £71,893 £1,367,686

West Ham 97.1% 35,647 34,601 1,046 £49.00 £8.50 £60,145 £1,081,860

Man. City 97.7% 48,000 46,905 1,095 £43.00 £9.00 £56,940 £1,081,860

Sources: Football365.com, BBC ‘Cost of Football’ survey and FC Business. 2011/12 season.

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With the new financial controls announced by UEFA, the Premier League and Football League, profit generation is only set to become more important and clubs need to address how they can turn this lost opportunity into valuable income in order to become sustainable businesses. Mark Bradley, director of the Fan Experience Company (2012a) argues that ‘it is in the quality of customer engagement that sustainability truly resides’ and, therefore, fan engagement should be central to a club’s growth strategy. Fan engagement has become somewhat of a buzzword recently, but Bradley questions whether the term is truly understood. For Bradley (2013) fan engagement is the process by which fans’ deep love for their club is reciprocated and, when it is delivered consistently, it increases a supporter’s emotional loyalty to his or her club. Fans’ loyalty is paramount to clubs’ survival, therefore, clubs’ strategies must focus on ways to maintain and build this loyalty amongst their fan base.

While the business world has engulfed football, some clubs remain slow at embracing the customer-focused characteristics and ideas of other service sector businesses, such as CRM. However, as clubs look to develop a strong commercial foothold they are showing signs of recognising the importance of their fan base. With competition fiercer than ever, failure to invest off the pitch not only signifies a missed opportunity for engaging fans and loss in revenue, but also shows an attitude that borders on arrogance. The more fans enjoy other leisure experiences, the more clubs need to start rewarding, rather than relying on, their loyalty. A core aspect of CRM is the notion that developing relationships with customers increases their loyalty and as Adamson et al (2005) argue loyalty levels amongst football fans are assumed to be higher than conventional industries which has led to the belief that some clubs take their fans’ loyalty for granted. A strategy of segmenting fans enabled by a CRM system, which was placed at the heart of the club, is paying dividends for Arsenal, who now has the ability to communicate with fans, fostering deeper, long-term connections to the club (Barnett, 2013).

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according to Hemsley (In FC Business 2013:17), clubs are ‘missing opportunities to engage with supporters more effectively and increase revenues by not making the most of their [customer] data’. Clubs have many opportunities to collect data on their fan base through match day and season ticket sales, competitions, surveys and social media and Hemsley (2013:17) argues that this data is ‘the secret weapon in the battle to improve the match day experience’ so that fans come to games more regularly and spend more whilst they are there. Hemsley (2013) reiterates that clubs which do analyse this kind of data properly are actively creating more personalised and relevant promotional offers and therefore increasing customer loyalty and revenues simultaneously.

Whilst there have been clear technical advancements in CRM amongst many clubs, according to Fiona Green from Goodform CRM agency (In FC Business, 2013:18), how information collected from different sources is integrated continues to cause difficulty. Becky Grote, QPR Marketing Director (In FC Business 2013, 18), agrees that unifying all the pockets of data collected from the many interactions the clubs has with fans across into one system to achieve an accurate single customer view is a challenge. Richard Peters (2013), Head of Insight at Sports Revolution, believes more clubs need to understand the value of their data because, as said by Simon Gray, Director of data experts Lateral Group, ‘there is strong evidence that the clubs who mine their data efficiently boost attendances and match day revenues’ (Gray, In FC Business 2013:18).

According to Gareth Balch (In FC Business, 2013:19), Director of data analysts Two Circles, ‘football has been slower than other industries to see the power of data’ and clubs need a better understanding of who their supporters are. Manchester City’s customer-focused data strategy leads by example. Manchester City knows what supporters are buying and how they are feeling about the club. This can affect their loyalty and how engaged they are, which strongly supports Bradley’s (2012b) argument that clubs fail to understand how valued the fans feel by their club.

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clubs were to ask this question and act upon the findings, they would increase loyalty and advocacy amongst fans, which would support a strategy of sustainability and growth. Whilst much of the literature within the industry agrees that clubs are becoming more customer-focused and that clubs are employing fan engagement around the match days, there is a lack of recent academic research into the strategies and CRM usage at clubs. Adamson et al’s (2005) research suggested that the football industry were replicating mistakes made in mainstream business sectors and this paper goes some way to investigating if any advancements have been made.

Jobber and Fahy’s (2012) three marketing conditions illustrates the argument for the pre-eminence of the customer. The view that providing customer satisfaction is paramount to simply producing products and their theory that companies should implement an outside-in strategy in order to understand what customers value is supported by Bradley (2012c) who argues that there are clear links in football between feeling valued, future attendance, off-pitch revenue generation and overall club growth. Bradley (2012d) argues that despite future sustainability of clubs depending on loyalty and growth, clubs are strategically designed to win, meaning that they solely focus on the product rather than creating and maintaining relationships with fans. Bradley (2012d) suggests that this ‘confused strategy’ has led to the attendance deficit, which so many clubs are now facing and is highlighted in figure 1.

The Football League supports Bradley’s assertion that growth stems from customer satisfaction. Their best practice guide for match days reveals that the feedback received from supporters often indicates that only ‘winning’ and/or ‘discounting’ are the most popular long-term strategies employed by clubs (The Football League, 2013:7). Bradley (2012a) affirms that football is hamstrung by its tendency to believe in two principal growth strategies: winning and discounting. The former, he explains, is only open to a select few and the latter only serves to diminish the brand. The Football League’s best practice guide states:

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with the club’, such as complaints being ignored and lip service being paid to real consultation and engagement. Instead, clubs that manage to grow ‘share one common factor: the pre-eminence of the customer’ (The Football League 2013:7)

A club focused on growth identifies what matters to fans, engages directly with supporters and involves them in determining the improvements (The Football League 2013:7). This will help to build advocacy and loyalty to the club, which are imperative ingredients to long-term stability and growth.

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The question over product or market orientation presents a dual challenge for marketers of football clubs. Angus Kinnear, Marketing Director at Arsenal, believes results are as vital off the pitch as they are on it. He states:

‘We don’t just want to be judged by results on the pitch. Obviously they are important and the club has to achieve, but from a business perspective, simply relying on success in this area is risky’. (Angus Kinnear in Marketing Magazine, 2009:20)

A quick analysis of Arsenal’s financial record suggests that dual focus has been successful. However, without a trophy in eight seasons, it could be argued that the club have become too focused on profit, at the expense of the product. Bradley (2012b:26) further develops Kinnear’s concerns regarding the reliance on success and stresses that ‘clubs often see the football itself as the ultimate driver of supporter engagement’, however, this is only appropriate as long as the club is winning. Whilst the quality of football and winning is a key driver of attendance, it is an aspect very few can control, therefore, it is better to focus on elements that can be influenced, such as understanding the fans’ motivations, what they value and what the club means to them, which drives increased loyalty (Bradley, 2013). He hypothesises ‘if clubs pursue service excellence (in preference to unsustainable growth strategies as myopic as winning and/or discounting) they can prosper in times of poor on-pitch performance’ (Bradley, 2012b:26).

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such as ticket prices, highlights the need for clubs to work harder to convert fans into long-term loyal customers. Clubs which neglect the need for creating and increasing loyalty and advocacy to the brand by failing to engage with their fans risk missing significant opportunities to drive revenues.

2.4 Football and Social Media: A Natural Fit

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people by providing networking platforms where they can share interests and values. For sports properties in particular, such sites could also provide excellent sponsorship opportunities. A football club’s official Twitter or Facebook page is a platform for a like-minded community (i.e. fans) to engage with one another and develop two-way conversations with the club, which can provide huge commercial and marketing benefits.

A study from Perform (In McCabe, 2013) concluded that 28% of fans who use social media are more likely to be interested in a brand that sponsors or advertises around a sport, and 25% are more likely to buy a product or service compared to all sports fans. This supports Vollmer and Precourt’s (2008, In Mangold and Faulds, 2009) view that consumers are turning more frequently to social media to conduct their information searches and make their purchasing decisions, highlighting the opportunity that engaging with customers via social media can bring for the club and their commercial partners.

Taker (2012) claims that whilst some football clubs have failed to grasp the potential social media offers, others who have successfully implemented it as part of their marketing strategy are reaping the benefits in both monetary and non-monetary terms. Hanna et al (2011) suggest that whilst companies realise the need to be active in social media, they do not truly understand how to do it effectively and how and what should be measured. This research investigates the usage of social platforms amongst a selection of Premier League and Football League clubs to ascertain how clubs are building social into their marketing strategies, and, if not, why not.

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on to the benefits of direct, two-way communications with their fans’ (Worrall, 2012:66). Benn Achilleas (2012), Founder of NEOCO (a Social CRM Agency), explains that consumer-to-consumer conversations enabled via social media, along with the unique relationship a fan has with his/her club, means that providing relevant, engaging content will allow a greater degree of loyalty amongst fans, which in turn leads to increased club revenue and fan affiliation. Therefore, social media provides a real opportunity for a club to further engage with its fans, increase brand loyalty and extend the brand to a wider audience. Goh et al (2013) found that engagement in social media brand communities leads to a positive increase in purchase expenditures. They claim that overall, user-generated content ‘exhibits a stronger impact than marketer-generated content on consumer purchase behaviour’ (Goh et al 2013:88). In correspondence to this, Walsh (2013) states that clubs should begin to develop deeper relationships with bloggers as a way of changing fan perceptions and improving fan engagement. This notes the importance of engaging with fans to increase and expand loyalty.

Whilst social media provides the ideal platform for clubs to engage with fans, clubs’ marketers must provide fans with unique and compelling content on a regular basis in order to build up their online communities. Manchester City insist that the biggest challenge in this sphere is ensuring their social media platforms ‘remain at the forefront in the field’ and are constantly providing fans with the best possible behind-the-scenes content, as well as having an authentic tone of voice (Neild, Econsultancy.com 2013). For today’s digitally connected world, stories, which establish emotional connections between fans and their clubs, are a powerful way of attracting new viewers, building relationships and developing long-term loyalty, according to Limelight networks (FC Business, 2013). For Limelight, words are not enough to grab an audience and keep it and, therefore, telling a story via creative social activity such as pictures, photos and video enables clubs to connect fans to the brand. It is not just enough for clubs to have a social presence nowadays, therefore, clubs need to ensure the content is relevant and engaging in order to foster loyalty and awareness amongst their fans.

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Commercial at Stoke City, believes that trying new initiatives to see what works and what does not in addition to holding dialogue with other clubs from the Premier League, Europe and USA is the key to improving in this area. In discussing the benefits social media brings, Billingham explains that ‘through Twitter and Facebook we can produce exclusive content in an instant, in a way that we simply can’t through traditional methods’ (Billingham in FC Business, 2012:24). He also argues that Twitter is already bringing the club tangible benefits and revenue such as a consistently full stadium and highlights that the commercial and marketing benefits of social media are endless so long as clubs are ‘controlled and specific’ with their strategy without flooding the market. These benefits, which Billingham outlines, elevate a relevant and central topic for football clubs: how can they utilise social media to engage with their fans and develop deeper relationships and increase loyalty to the brand.

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Revolution (In Campaign 2012) argues that ‘social media is the saviour of sports sponsorship’, since it delivers rights holders and brands new ways to learn more about their consumers and ultimately ways of monetising from their social strategies.

2.5 Social Media as a Brand Extension Tool

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challenge is to ensure they remain focused on their core brand values and engage with local fans to avoid alienating their domestic fan-base. Following an interview with Tom Fox, Chief Commercial Office at Arsenal, Barnett (In Marketing Week, 2013) emphasises that ‘the needs of loyal local fans must be balanced with a growing international following hungry for more involvement and deeper connections with the club’. Successfully managing this balancing act will ensure clubs grow regardless of on-pitch performance.

2.6 Going Beyond On-Pitch Success

Brand Finance (2013:16) argues that ‘commercial and on-pitch [success] are intertwined’, therefore, it is vital that clubs understand the significance and value of the brands they control. In 2013 Bayern Munich overtook Manchester United to become top of the brand value league to prove that ‘silverware and profitability are not mutually exclusive’ in football (Brand Finance, 2013:8). Lessons should be learned from the Bundesliga, which states that their DNA is ‘performance on the pitch, lots of German players and financial behaviour off it’ (Seifert, In FC Business 2013:9). On and off pitch activities need to work in tandem so that football success is founded on a financially stable brand.

McGraw (1998) asserts that customer loyalty and long-term association are often overlooked for short-term revenue growth. This is supported by Apostolopoulou and Gladden (In Beech and Chadwick, 2007) who stress that creating brand equity is no easy task, especially because of the short-term approach that clubs have often adopted with the almost exclusive focus on winning. Moreover, Aaker (1991) asserts that building a strong brand is a long-term process. In order for clubs to grow their brand they need to realign their focus from short-term results to long-term design which will enable them to develop a brand that goes beyond on-pitch success (Apostolopoulou and Gladden, In Beech and Chadwick, 2007). Key to this strategy are the fans. Speaking about the fan ownership model in Germany, Chief Executive of the Bundesliga states:

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This goes a long way to supporting Germany’s model which places the loyal fan at the heart of the game. As a result German football has seen tremendous growth on and off the pitch over the past decade. Despite significant increases in Premier League clubs’ revenues, largely due to huge broadcasting deals, the wages to revenue ratio in 2011/12 stood at 70% compared to the Bundesliga’s at 51%. As a result, despite the Premier League’s revenues dwarfing its European counterparts, Bundesliga clubs made a £161m combined operating profit compared to £98m from Premier League clubs (The Week, 2013). This suggests that Premier League clubs have based their strategies on short-term gains and a ‘win at all costs’ philosophy to the detriment of long-term growth, which has, for many, resulted in operating losses, despite the significant increases in broadcasting deals.

2.7: Research Questions

This study will be guided by three main research questions, which the research attempts to address. These are outlined below and will be revisited throughout the study.

Research Question 1: Are clubs using fan engagement as a catalyst for growth?

Research Question 2: Are clubs successfully using social media to engage with fans, increase loyalty and market their brand?

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3. Methodology

The objective of qualitative research is not to make generalisations to a broader population but rather to develop an in-depth contextual understanding of the phenomena that are being studied and to capture and interpret thoughts, feelings and experiences. The three research questions are more suited to a qualitative study that seeks to understand how managers within the industry perceive and interpret the role that social media can play in engaging fans and what effect this can have on the long-term growth of clubs. The nature of the research questions aligns more towards an interpretivist methodological approach, since there is emphasis on the role of interpretations with the aim of understanding rather than explaining. The interpretive approach allows an insider’s perspective to be gained, which would be missed by a positivist approach (Gratton and Jones, 2010). The semi-structured interviews allowed for a phenomenological approach to the research design, which focuses on people’s perceptions, perspectives and interpretations of a particular situation.

There is a small but growing body of research on social media but at this stage there is little understanding of how sport organisations are using this platform. Therefore, this research is exploratory since it aims to gain an insight and familiarity into this phenomenon and its inductive approach develops theories or patterns from the data collected without any preconceived ideas or explanation (Gratton and Jones, 2010).

3.1 Data Collection Methods

3.1.1 Research Stage 1: Interviews

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[image:26.595.53.543.377.701.2]

approach to the interviews was important as it allowed for probing of views and opinions so that respondents could expand on their answers, which often lead into new pathways of conversation which, whilst not originally considered, helped to meet the final research objective. Whilst it was important to remain flexible when interviewing, interview schedules were developed to ensure that the question content concentrated on the research objectives. Due to the brief time period afforded to the study, participants were limited to those individuals who responded to interview requests. This led to the number of interviews being fewer than originally intended. It was the author’s intention to conduct all interviews face-to-face, however, due to the time pressures of the study and the busy schedules of participants, four of the 14 interviews were carried out by phone. Face-to-face interviews were tape recorded and transcribed (see appendix section one) to aid the organisation and analysis of the data.

Figure 2: List of interviewees

Interviewee (Position) Organisation Date of Interview

Social Media Manager Premier League Club 28.05.2013

Multi Media Officer Championship Club 15.07.2013

Media Manager League One Club 05.08.2013

Marketing Manager Championship Club 24.05.2013

Marketing Manager Championship Club 23.07.2013

Social Media Manager Premier League Club 25.09.2013

Customer Services and Supporters Liaison

Officer Premier League Club 05.07.2013

CRM and Digital Marketing Manager Championship Club 19.07.2013

Chief Executive Championship Club 23.07.2013

Chief Executive League One club 23.08.2013

CRM Services Director CRM Agency 12.07.2013

Managing Partner Sports Digital Consultancy 07.08.2013

Managing Director CRM and Data Agency 08.08.2013

Head of Club and Supporter Services The Football League 08.07.2013

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Managers, CRM Managers, Customer Service Managers and Chief Executives. Figure 2 shows the interview schedule with details of interviewees and their role in the industry; all of whom were central to marketing and social media strategies at their respective clubs or within the industry. Fisher (2007:168) describes this as ‘purposeful sampling’ since it identifies individuals who have answers to the researcher’s questions. Prior to each interview the author ensured the participant understood the research topic which enabled them to fully comprehend the nature of the research and provide more informed answers and opinions. Each participant was then supplied with a consent form guaranteeing confidentiality and explaining their right to withdraw from the study at any time.

3.1.2 Research Stage 2 – Focus Group

Focus group interviews has been described as the 'explicit use of group interaction as research data’ (Morgan, 1988). This focus group consisted of seven fans of clubs in the Premier League, Football League and non-league, which ensured that the information gathered was from fans with a variety of experiences from their involvement in football. The interaction between these fans allowed the author to collect data that is a true reflection of fans’ feelings and beliefs around the research topic. This interaction allowed for a greater depth of discussion, which provided richer information to be gathered than if the fans were asked individually. The focus group was recorded to aid the author in the data analysis.

3.1.3 Research Stage 3 – Twitter Investigation

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additional data from stage two is important within qualitative research to provide an alternative perspective to information gathered through the first stage of data collection. Despite not being able to generalise to broader populations, by gathering data from such a wide variety of people and clubs, this can be related back to theories and used to make analytical generalisations.

By using two different methods of research, it allows the researcher to triangulate the interview data with the data from the Twitter investigation. Triangulation is one of the best ways to explore the same topic from different angles, which increases confidence in the conclusions drawn. Triangulation also improves reliability and credibility, since the findings can be cross-checked.

3.2 Data Analysis

In contrast to quantitative research, there is no clear distinction between data collection, data analysis or data interpretation in qualitative research, since the researcher develops initial ideas and identifies themes throughout the process of data collection. The first stage of the data analysis, as suggested by Miles and Huberman (1994), was data reduction in the form of organising and coding the transcriptions from each face-to-face interview1 and written notes from the four phone interviews. The process of coding is vital in the data reduction stage as it organises the raw data into conceptual categories and provides a form of logical structure to the data. The data reduction stage was completed as soon as possible post-interview so that any irrelevant data was discarded and emerging themes were highlighted. All data was kept in the transcriptions so that it was retrievable if the author considered it to be relevant at a later stage. Throughout the interview process the themes which did emerge were then considered and used to adapt the questions asked to participants. Upon completion of all interviews, transcriptions and coding of relevant themes, initial conclusions were developed.

Figure 3 shows the Premier League table ranked in order of Twitter followers from highest to lowest. There is a clear drop off in followers from 6th placed Tottenham

1_{One face-to-face interview was not completed in time for a full transcription to be made. Hand written notes}

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[image:29.595.109.493.169.629.2]

Hotspur to 7th placed Newcastle United, therefore the top six teams were selected for analysis in addition to the bottom four, which contained the three newly promoted teams for the 2013/14 season.

Figure 3. Twitter Followers. Figures correct: 31/07/13

Premier League Followers

Volume % Change in last month

Arsenal 2,553,053 4.6%

Chelsea 2,495,350 9.5%

Liverpool 1,826,351 5.4%

Manchester City 1,046,541 11.8%

Manchester United 609,574 50.9%

Tottenham Hotspur 549,411 10.5%

Newcastle United 265,284 6.2%

Everton 223,346 7.6%

West Ham United 196,700 7.0%

Aston Villa 188,214 8.0%

Fulham 150,958 8.4%

Sunderland 149,924 9.4%

Swansea City 138,766 10.7%

Norwich City 129,973 9.0%

Southampton 127,202 10.2%

Stoke City 123,383 8.8%

West Bromwich Albion 87,236 9.0%

Cardiff City 53,601 18.9%

Crystal Palace 49,648 15.9%

Hull City 42,041 23.1%

TOTAL 11,006,556

Source: Nineteen Eighty Four, in FC Business (2013)

20 consecutive tweets were analysed for each club to investigate the content of tweets and categorise them into 3 groups:

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 Engaging Tweets: Questions, surveys, competitions, offers/discounts to fans

 Creative Tweets: Imagery (pictures and photos), videos, interview quotes from players/staff, links to blogs

Any retweets from the club and direct replies to other Twitter users were also logged as this shows a level of engagement with fans.

The frequency of posts per day from two selected clubs (Manchester United and Hull City) was analysed over a seven day period to understand whether engagement with their audience was consistent throughout the week or simply on a match day. To draw conclusions from this content analysis the data was displayed in tables, charts and graphs to help compare between clubs’ use of Twitter.

3.3 Limitations

Within this research it would have been useful to have obtained further interviews, particularly from dedicated Social Media Managers from clubs to produce richer data from experts in this field. Despite contacting the few clubs that had dedicated staff to social media there was limited response, which could suggest that, not only is there a lack staff performing this role, but that those who are were reluctant to be interviewed. This potential reluctance could be explained by the lack of clear job description and objectives, which was one of the findings from this research.

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completed by one individual, which might produce biased categorisations and themes due to the level of subjectivity which is associated with qualitative research.

3.4. Ethical Considerations

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4. Analysis

In total 14 semi-structured interviews were conducted, made up of 10 interviews with club employees including two chief executives, three interviews with senior employees at sport agencies and one interview with a member of staff from the Football League. A focus group consisting of seven fans supporting a variety of clubs ranging from Premier League to non-league was undertaken to give a fan’s perspective across the topics. The second research phase was in the form of a small Twitter investigation of 10 Premier League clubs to analyse the content of their tweets, retweets and replies and to compare and contrast clubs with the highest number of followers to those with the lowest. Several themes arose from the interviews, many of which were issues discussed in the literature review. The next section analyses these themes in more detail.

4.1 A More Customer-Focused Approach for Clubs

All participants articulated the view that there has been a genuine awakening in the industry, albeit a long overdue one, that football is now about more than just the product on the pitch for 90 minutes. Several interviewees discussed the importance of the ‘customer journey’ from when a fan decides to buy a ticket to when they get home and that this overall fan experience has become a crucial element to clubs’ marketing strategies. It was generally agreed by most interviewees that many of the new fan experience initiatives which we are now seeing have been in Major League Soccer (MLS) for several years and that the influx of American owners into the UK’s football industry may have been a catalyst for the improved fan experience.

A Media Manager from a League One club admitted that whilst in the past football clubs were taking their fans for granted, they have now realised that across all other industries customer service is an important issue for consumers and that it is imperative for clubs to become more fan-centric. A Social Media Manager for a Premier League club believed that the emergence of social media has prompted clubs to become more fan-focused.

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companies be transparent and clubs are realising that they now have to listen’. (Social Media Manager of Premier League club)

The significance of engaging with fans was echoed by all participants, and this particular quote from a Championship club’s Chief Executive emphasises why fan engagement is so vital to clubs growth:

‘I think fan engagement is critical because a lot of football clubs, their attendances ebb and flow on their results, so if the team is doing well attendances are high, if the team are struggling attendances drop. Whereas if you focus on fan engagement and the fan experience then you can even out some of that fluctuation and that gives you a better chance of having a much more stable business, gives you a better chance of maintaining your revenue levels and actually it gives you a better chance of having a better relationship with your fans’. (Interview with Chief Executive of Championship club)

He argued that by making the whole experience more important and enjoyable it actually reduces the impact of bad results on the pitch. He revealed that improving the match day experience at his club made a big difference to their revenues. For example, the match day catering revenues were higher for this Championship club than at Old Trafford or Wembley. He attributes this success to engaging with fans at a basic and commercial level. When discussing the decision to keep the stadium open longer after the match, he explained the commercial benefit to the club:

‘If they stay longer they’ll spend more. If they spend more our revenues are in better shape and if our revenue is in better shape than we can invest more on the pitch. I mean, this is a virtuous circle, if you get it spinning in the right direction. If it goes in the opposite direction it becomes a vicious circle, so you constantly have to strive to improve that fan engagement which keeps the virtuous circle turning’.(Interview with Chief Executive of Championship club)

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consultation and engagement. Whilst it is welcomed that clubs have finally recognised the need for engagement, there is a danger that clubs are becoming too focused on commercialising and monetising from fans to the detriment of building fan loyalty and truly engaging with their local fan base. A customer service manager for a Premier League club questions the understanding of fan engagement amongst clubs:

‘is fan engagement around getting people in to spend or is fan engagement about having a level of consultation, having a level of mutual trust and how the club can benefit supporters and how supporters can benefit the club?’

(Customer Service Manager and SLO of Premier League club)

There are clear financial benefits from engaging with fans and these monetary gains are rightly critical to clubs’ sustainability and success. However, when engagement becomes solely about making money out of fans to the detriment of consultation, transparency and trust, this only serves to diminish fans’ loyalty, endangering the long-term success of the club. This links to the transaction-relationship marketing theory which Adamson et al (2005) explains leads to confusion in conventional business.

4.2 Lack of Resource for CRM Strategies

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Two club employees described the notion of implementing an integrated CRM system which included ticketing, hospitality, catering, retail and social media as the ‘holy grail’ for clubs. However, it was noted that not a single club is known to be able to integrate all those platforms onto one integrated CRM system yet. This is something which interests many of the big clubs and it is expected that in a few years with further technical advancements the big Premier League clubs will have such systems in place. Interestingly, all interviewees stated a lack of financial or staff resource meant that they either did not have a CRM system at all or that they had one but it was not used properly. Managing Director of 4sight agency stated that it is the insight that is so important for successful CRM but most clubs do not have the staff to understand it. This is supported further by CRM Services Director at the CRM Agency who explained that it is often the case that some clubs have bought CRM software and not resourced it or they have resourced the department without giving them the relevant software:

‘There is a general conception: if we invest a load of money in CRM, we want to plug it in and we want our world to change. But you can't. You can plug CRM software in but unless you’ve got the ethos and the building and the staff in the building to drive that culture throughout its worthless’. (CRM Services Director at CRM Agency)

This supports the theory in the literature that successful firms view RM and CRM as a philosophy and culture, rather than a strategy or IT tool.

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I think everything has to be long-term. I think everything has to be done for a reason, not a short-term gain. I'm talking to a championship club at the moment that has spent a ridiculous amount of money on a pre-season camp, is throwing money left right and centre at players. Will it invest low levels on CRM? No, we haven’t got the budget for that. (CRM Services Director at CRM Agency)

This suggests that the lack of CRM resources in football clubs is the result of an unwillingness to invest in it above the players, rather than an absence of available finances. The CRM Services Director at the CRM Agency prefers to re-define CRM to ‘insight and engagement’ because for him the concept is about truly understanding and scientifically building strategies around the core needs of the customer base, which is an essential requirement for businesses in order to succeed according to Raab et al (2008). In addition to this, Managing Director of 4sight agency explained that a key characteristic of CRM is that it is long-term in nature whilst, critically, football is characterised by strategies based around short-term gains, which again reflects the argument highlighted in the literature review that clubs adopt a short-term approach with almost exclusive focus on winning.

4.3 Vision, Mission and Direction: The Key to a Successful Strategy

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club’s brand and identity is so that ‘you will all get out of bed in the morning knowing what you’re trying to achieve’. However, it was suggested that most clubs do not dedicate enough resource to developing a structured, long-term vision and consequently most clubs do not understand their own brand or identity and are based on confused, short-term strategies. If everyone in the club understands the vision, mission and direction of the club then a strategy can be formed to ensure long-term stability and success whilst on the journey to reach that vision.

All club staff were asked to describe the vision, mission and direction or brand of their club in order to ascertain whether the club had a clearly communicated philosophy and identity. For all the Football League clubs there was a clear philosophy surrounding community and locality. One interviewee from a Championship club stated that whilst there is a vision, mission and direction at the club it was above their head, suggesting that such planning and strategies do not filter down to the staff members and instead remain with the senior management. This supports the belief of the Chief Executive mentioned earlier that not enough resource is invested in communicating an overriding ethos throughout all levels of the club.

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37 4.4 Uncertainty around Social Media

The interviews revealed a great deal of uncertainty around social media and football perhaps unsurprisingly given the speed social media continues to evolve at and its recent conception into the football industry. Amongst the dedicated social media employees at clubs there was the belief that a social strategy should be placed at the heart of the club and if harnessed in the right way it can really add value to a club. This view was echoed by other participants working in the industry who warn clubs that social media should be ignored at their peril. Whilst a handful of clubs, namely Manchester City and Liverpool, were praised by almost all interviewees for their social strategies and ground-breaking engagement with fans, it was evident from the interviews that the participants felt the majority of clubs are failing to grasp the potential of social media. A Social Media Manager from a Premier League club alludes to the fact that an older generation of senior management who ‘are entrenched in the same old ways of doing things’ has stifled the use of social media. He argued that to actually build social within a football club it needs people from a very top level to believe in it. Instead, he revealed that most clubs recruit juniors, often recent graduates, for the role of Social Media Manager and expect them to educate upwards to senior management and board level rather than being influenced and managed by their seniors.

The Social Media Managers who were interviewed as part of the research were all asked to explain their job description and key objectives when they first joined their clubs. Interestingly, most responses highlighted a lack of job description or clear objectives for their role:

‘It was very much a keeping up with the Joneses like we needed to get someone to do social. It wasn’t communicated like that but it became very obvious that was the case. I think they felt that they had to get someone in to do it, but they didn’t realise what they wanted to do with it and what impact it would have’. (Social Media Manager at Premier League club)

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Marketing Manager of a Championship club confirmed that this was the case when he first set up their Facebook account 6 years ago and had very little activity until it was revisited as recently as last year when the club was re-structured. The Media Manager for a League One club stated that a key objective of its social media presence is to ‘make the club seem approachable’ and using it as a customer service tool. However, he believes some clubs ‘use it to say here’s a story on our website’ and ‘they don’t really interact with fans on social media’ which ‘kind of defies the point of it really’. This was supported by a Championship club’s Multi-Media Officer who emphasised that clubs that interact with fans generate more positive thoughts and feedback since ‘fans see the interaction as getting more value from their money’. However, in direct contrast, a Football League employee stated that ‘it does not need to be interactive’, because ‘the more seen you are to be doing that the more followers you get who want a response, and it does grow’. They warned that for clubs with little or no resources this could then become a strain on other staff members to the detriment of other departments within the club.

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assumption that the bigger clubs tend not to respond to fans. A Social Media Manager of a Premier League club described replying to fans on social media as ‘vital’ but stated that ‘it all depends on the resource available’ as to whether or not responding was possible. Nevertheless, he believed ‘having dedicated staff to directly respond to tweets is something clubs should aim towards’.

Another fan stated that whilst he enjoyed watching videos and seeing other creative content, he would normally access these via the club’s website. This could be because of a lack of awareness of the creative content clubs supply via social media, which again questions fans’ understanding of how their clubs use social media and suggests clubs need to do more to promote their social channels, clearly explaining the benefits of engaging with them on such platforms.

The majority of fans agreed that if the club or players directly engaged with them then they would feel increased loyalty to the club. However, the belief that players are strictly controlled and content is mediated seems to have made fans sceptical of clubs. One fan stated that ‘bigger clubs do not care about fans as it is all about money and if you think anything different then you are naïve’. He explained further than with fewer English players within his club and the more global they become, the less he cares about them. Another fan supported this stating ‘you can understand why local fans feel disenfranchised’. Findings from the focus group suggest that loyalty and advocacy can be built with whom the clubs engage and interact. However, it appears that fans are unaware of the benefits following their club on social media can provide, since they consider the platform to be yet another information tool which does not offer them anything different that a generic sports or official club website. The focus group also emphasised the growing discontent amongst domestic fans as a result of the almost exclusive focus of money, as opposed to history, traditions and values.

4.5 Monetising from Social Media

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wanted to be able to do from their social strategies there was agreement that clubs should not always expect a return on investment tangibly from this social activity:

‘There is no doubt social media done the right way is doing exactly that, engaging. Can you quantify and monetise it? Not necessarily. Does that make it wrong? Not necessarily. You will bear the fruit in a different way’. (CRM Services Director at CRM Agency)

Communication and interaction through social media assist in building brand awareness, loyalty and equity, which in the long-term can justify clubs’ social activity commercially. The next step for clubs using social media is to create a correlation between their social activity and purchase behaviour. Creating advocates for the brand is another potential benefit of successful social strategies, as the Media Manager from League One club highlighted:

‘If you actually take the time and put a bit of humour in or take some time to reply to them you can probably win those people round and then they end up being stronger brand advocates than people who were kind of on your side anyway. Like if you can spin someone round 180° then they’re bang on your side after that’. (Media Manager from League One club)

Whilst direct monetisation from social media is not yet expected to be an outcome of clubs’ social strategies, it was discussed in several interviews that the future of social will be heavily linked with sponsors and commercial partners. As stated in the literature review sponsors nowadays are concerned with gaining access to content and fans and this was supported by a consultant in the industry who stated:

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Whilst all clubs are at different stages of their social media maturity, almost all clubs have now taken the step to have a social media presence. The next step for the majority is to understand what types of content and engagement drives loyalty and expands the brand. For a handful of the bigger clubs the question over sponsors’ access is not far away and whilst it does pose a threat, if handled properly, this can clearly be a key way to monetise from clubs’ social activity.

4.6 Analysis: Twitter Investigation

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Despite advancements in social media amongst football clubs in the last 12 months, many clubs still ignore the greatest aspect of this phenomenon, which is the ability to transcend the usual barriers of location, wealth and language to connect people. Consequently, content from many clubs remains one-way broadcasting. This investigation aimed to show and compare the variation in content amongst the clubs.

Figure 4. Graph showing types of tweets from 10 Premier League clubs.

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Manchester United has only been active on Twitter since July 2013 and, such is the power of the brand, is experiencing rapid growth in its follow figures, as Figure 3 highlights. Whilst this expansion can be largely attributed to the huge global following of the club, it is also noteworthy that the content of Manchester United’s tweets is mostly creative with a strong focus on imagery. Liverpool’s content was also imagery driven with a steady stream of iconic photos which provided succinct storytelling of the club’s rich history. Whilst they both contained informative tweets, it was clear the emphasis was on creative, engaging content for their fans.

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43 Figure 5: Frequency of tweets for one week period (30th August – 6th

September) for Hull City and Manchester United.

Whilst HC tweet regularly on the match day, the majority of this content is informative with minute by minute commentary on the game. In contrast to this, Manchester United do not tweet any match commentary, preferring to only tweet engaging and creative content, such as photos and interview quotes from players or staff.

4.7 Other Notable Findings

Following the research findings from Goh et al (2013), which claimed that user-generated content (UCG) ‘exhibits a stronger impact than marketer-user-generated content (MGC) on consumer purchase behaviour’, it seems odd that not all interviewees stated that their club is engaging with influential fan bloggers, as this could be a way of changing fan perceptions, driving engagement and building brand advocacy and loyalty. A Social Media Manager from a Premier League club highlighted the current lack of connection between clubs and fan bloggers:

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30th Aug. 31st Aug. (Hull Match Day) 1st Sept.(MU Match Day)

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[image:44.595.74.523.109.441.2]

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‘We have got all these really engaged bloggers who are talking about the organisation but there is no real connection’. (Social Media Manager of Premier League club)

It was evident from the interview process that there was apprehension amongst clubs over the use of social media and engagement with bloggers:

‘I think that if they could, they wouldn’t engage at all. If they could get away with it, they wouldn’t want to be anywhere near these conversations. I think they wish they could be like that’. (Social Media Manager of Premier League club)

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5. Discussion

This section will further explore the findings from the interviews and Twitter investigation and combine them with the current body of literature in order to answer the three research questions outlined. The discussion will also identify aspects that the author believes may benefit from further research.

5.1 Are clubs using fan engagement as a catalyst for growth?

A large body of research around RM and CRM has stated that organisations’ success is built on the foundations of long-term relationships with their customers, which leads to increased purchase, lifetime value and new business through word-of-mouth promotion (Jobber and Fahy, 2012). However, it has been argued that the football industry has been late in adopting such a customer-focused philosophy. For the football industry, Bradley (2012a) argued ‘it is in the quality of customer engagement that sustainability truly resides’ and, therefore, engaging with fans ought to be the focal point for all clubs. This study highlights that there is a genuine belief around the industry that clubs are finally becoming more fan-centric as they realise the importance placed upon customer service and experience in other industries, against which football is now competing. Nevertheless, the research raised the critical issue of lack of resource for developing stronger marketing strategies such as implementing CRM systems and social media, which, as emphasised in the literature and through the findings, is a key requirement if clubs are to become more customer-focused. This serves to support the argument made in the literature that failing to invest off the pitch has resulted in missed opportunities for clubs to engage with fans and, therefore, learn more about what they value and their consumer behaviour, which in turn will lead to long-term loyalty and increased revenues.